Karmenu Vella,Member of the Commission. – Mr President, I would like first and foremost to thank the rapporteur, Ulrike Rodust, and also to thank the shadow rapporteurs for their dedicated work. The agreement that you have reached in the trilogues together with the Council is a very good result, and I would like to thank you all for working tirelessly to ensure a solid, sustainable result that works in practice.

I also want to thank the rapporteur for ensuring a timely adaptation ahead of the full implementation of the landing obligation. We have used the Baltic Sea plan as the blueprint for the North Sea plan, but where improvements were necessary, the co-legislators wisely agreed to find new approaches. For example, by introducing flexibility through the concept of ranges, which allows us to quickly adapt, following the most up-to-date scientific advice to the benefit of stake-holders and also to the benefit of sustainable stocks. The North Sea plan is very important, as it provides for reaching MSY for the demersal fisheries in the sea basin, and it also paves the way for the next multiannual plans yet to come.

Let me highlight that the landing obligation enters fully into force in less than one year, and we are all aware of the challenges it entails for our fishing industry. The North Sea plan contains a range of tools to help towards this transition, and I would like to call on all Member States to use the flexibilities which exist in order to ensure smooth implementation. We need to ensure that fishermen have the tools to sustain sustainable fishing practices; for example, by adapting their gears so that they can alleviate choke situations in mixed demersal fisheries in a way that is in line with the CFP objectives.

It is now for the stakeholders of the North Sea to put these tools into practice and also to ensure tailor-made solutions to the specific challenges in the different fisheries of the North Sea.

Nils Torvalds, on behalf of the ALDE Group. – Mr President, I would like to start with a thank you to Ulrike Rodust. Once again with her good cooperation we have been able to achieve something which is acceptable, if not perfect.

The CFP clearly sets out that all fish stocks shall be fished at sustainable levels before 2020. The North Sea map, just like the previous one for the Baltic Sea, unfortunately includes provisions allowing for fishing efforts up to F upper, under certain conditions. So, even if we are not very satisfied with this, we will vote for this agreement.

Special thanks goes to my colleagues from the Greens and the GUE: they have had the good taste to reintroduce one of my amendments. I’m sorry to say I won’t vote for it because that would lead to the agreement falling, but big thanks to you Ulrike, and we’ll try to go further in this direction.

David Coburn, on behalf of the EFDD Group. – Thank you, Mr President. Commissioner, I told you in committee how the UK fishermen feel abused. You replied by telling me that you did not understand this. If you were being honest, that makes you particularly ill informed and unimaginative. If you are not, then it makes you a tendentious, disingenuous politician embodying everything wrong with the EU and its political class. To be frank, I think that trying to get you, Commissioner Vella, to understand how and why British fishermen feel abused is a little like trying to explain how to ride a bike to a shark.

So let me be clear, or try to be clear: if you want Members to stay in a club when they feel abused, unhappy and invisible you first listen to them – especially the complaints about abuse; you have an honest discussion about change; you agree changes, which recognise their critique, especially when you know it is accurate and makes sense; and you make the improvements as quickly as you can. You do not: deny the validity of what they say; tell them they agreed to this and cannot question it; tell them that they have no justification for feeling abused; be unpleasant and nasty to them in the departure discussions from the EU, in the belief that it might cause them to change their minds or ‘pour encourager les autres’.

This North Sea plan exposes this place for what it is: an abuser in denial. The fishermen of Britain will no longer be oppressed; the fishermen of Britain will not be denied. We reject the plan. We reject the Common Fisheries Policy. Now the SNP in Scotland want to hand over our fishing to the EU. Ruth Davidson’s remainer Conservatives want to hand fishing over to the EU as well. But UKIP wants our fishing grounds controlled by Britain and by nobody else. And I have a little book here I shall send up to my SNP colleague Mr Hudghton for his edification, I’m sure he’ll enjoy it.

President. – That reminds me that some sharks have been discovered with bicycles in their bellies.

Ian Hudghton (Verts/ALE). – Mr President, four decades of the CFP have been marked by failure, and the impact of that failure on attitudes towards the EU in our fishing communities should not be underestimated. Ironically, just as the CFP is moving, albeit slowly, towards a more regionalised and decentralised model, the UK is leaving the EU. Nonetheless, the provisional agreement on the North Sea does offer a potential improvement in the management of the EU’s North Sea fisheries. But this multiannual plan will inevitably become less important when the UK leaves the EU and when the majority of North Sea stocks become shared stocks within the terms of international law.

It is therefore imperative that meaningful progress is made in planning for post-Brexit fisheries management and therefore that the UK Government makes up its mind what its attitude will be in such negotiations. But ultimately, in my view, my hope is that Scotland will choose to become a normal independent nation again, able to set and pursue our own priorities and negotiations with our neighbours.

(The speaker agreed to take a blue-card question under Rule 162(8))

David Coburn (EFDD), blue-card question. – Thank you, Ian, for taking my question. We may be opponents but we always get on fairly well. But, Ian, how can you call yourself a Scottish Nationalist when you want to hand over our fishing grounds to the European Union? Surely what you really are is a Euro Nationalist, not a Scottish Nationalist? Please enlighten me.

(Interjection by the President: ‘If it’s possible’)

Ian Hudghton (Verts/ALE), blue-card answer. – It may be useful to put some facts on record, and not for the first time. Some 20 years ago my predecessor as SNP MEP for the North East of Scotland, Allan Macartney, led in our Fisheries Committee a report calling for zonal management of fisheries. At that time the Commission and the Council, including the UK Government, failed to embrace the idea. Again, a little over 10 years ago at the previous CFP reform I voted against Parliament’s position at that time, because it did not go far enough in calling for decentralised management of fisheries and therefore more input for Scotland. Again that was not embraced by the Council, including the UK Government.

One of the principal reasons that the CFP has been a failure for Scotland and indeed for many other areas is because successive UK governments have helped to construct it that way.

Karmenu Vella,Member of the Commission. – Mr President, honourable Members, thank you very much for your interventions and also for your valuable views. I have taken due note of this very interesting debate and also of your general overall support.

Let me reiterate: it is of utmost importance that the multiannual plans are made fit for purpose. To ensure this, they must focus on the tools to ensure a practical and sustainable management framework which also allows for flexibilities for our mixed demersal fisheries. The co-legislators have achieved this with the North Sea plan, and I didn’t see any major substantial divergences.

So finally, let me express also my hope that the European Parliament would also work – and we are prepared to continue working with the European Parliament – on the other multiannual plans as well. Multiannual plans that we have proposed so that they can be adopted and also so that stakeholders can make full use of these plans as well as to agree on tailor-made decisions, for example for the multiannual plan for the Western waters.

Again, my thanks to the rapporteur, Ulrike Rodust, and also to the shadow rapporteurs.